Researcher

Real or Fake? Spotting AI Pictures and Videos

AI can now make pictures and videos that look absolutely real. Here are the signs to look for and the habits that will keep you smart.

AI, Librarians, and Google — Who to Ask When

Three different helpers, three different superpowers. Learn when each one gives you the best answer.

The 'Which AI Should I Ask?' Flowchart

A super-simple map you can use any time you are stuck. Start at the top, answer a few questions, and land on the right helper.

History Detective: Primary Sources and AI

History class is full of old letters, diaries, and speeches. AI can help you read them, but you still have to think like a detective.

Helpful or Sneaky?

Sort real AI uses into helpful heroes and sneaky trouble.

Where Training Data Actually Comes From

You cannot understand modern AI without understanding its diet. Let's map where the data comes from, how it gets cleaned, and what that means.

Is the Model Reasoning or Pattern Matching?

The line between deep reasoning and clever pattern recognition is blurry. Here's how researchers try to tell them apart.

Where Bias in AI Actually Comes From

AI bias is not magic and not moral failure. It is math operating on imperfect data. Here is exactly where the bias enters the system.

Meet OpenClaw: A Case Study in Local Agent Orchestration

OpenClaw is open-source software that runs agents on your own machine — no cloud dependency, your data stays put. A tour of why it exists and how its pieces fit together.

Free-Tier Shootout: What You Can Do For $0

Every big AI has a free version. Stack them side-by-side and learn where each one runs out of gas.

Perplexity for Real-Time Research

When the question is 'what happened this week?' or 'what does this paper say?', Perplexity is often the right answer. Here is why.

Browser Extensions — Claude for Chrome, Perplexity, and Friends

AI in your browser turns every webpage into something you can interrogate. Learn which extension to install, and why that access needs trust.

Gemini Deep Research — autonomous research pipeline

Deep Research is Gemini's multi-step research agent. You ask a question; it plans, searches, reads, synthesizes, and delivers a report.

NotebookLM Audio Overviews — your papers, as a podcast

Upload a PDF, a set of docs, or a research paper. NotebookLM produces a two-host podcast conversation about the material.

Perplexity Spaces — your personal research lab

A Space is a bookmarked, collaborative research context. Your sources, your prompts, your team — all persistent.

Open vs. Closed Models: Philosophy and Strategy

Open-source AI is both a technical movement and a political one. Understand the arguments so you can pick a stack and defend it.

AI Alignment: The Actual Technical Problem

Alignment is not a vibes debate. It is a concrete technical problem about getting systems to pursue goals we actually want. Here is what researchers work on when they say they work on alignment.

Labor and AI: What the Data Actually Says

Most predictions about AI and jobs are either panic or dismissal. Here is what the best evidence through 2025 actually shows — including what is overstated.

AI Safety Orgs and How They Actually Operate

The AI safety ecosystem is small, influential, and often misunderstood. Here is who does what, how they get funded, and how to tell real work from rhetoric.

MCP Deep Dive: The USB-C for AI Tools

Model Context Protocol is the most important open standard in agents. One protocol, 1,200+ servers, and your agent can plug into almost any system. Here's how it actually works.

Capstone: Build and Ship a Real Agent

Everything comes together. Design, code, test, secure, and ship a production-quality agent with open-source code you can fork today.

Open-Source vs. Closed Image Models

Flux Pro vs. Flux Dev. Midjourney vs. Stable Diffusion. The choice affects product architecture, cost, and what's possible. Here's the honest tradeoff.

Building a Personal AI Stack for School and Career

Assemble the four or five AI tools that actually belong in your daily life. A tested template for the stack that earns its keep.

Projects and Spaces — Persistent Context Is the Future

Claude Projects, ChatGPT Projects, Notion AI, Perplexity Spaces. How persistent context changes AI from search box to actual assistant.

Perplexity Comet — the AI browser

Perplexity Comet is a full web browser that treats AI as a first-class citizen. It reads, summarizes, and acts on pages you visit.

Kimi Research Mode — autonomous deep research

Kimi's Research Mode plans, browses, and synthesizes across dozens of sources. Here is how to get the most out of it.

Flux Dev — open-source fine-tuning

Flux Dev is the LoRA-friendly middle tier of the Flux family. Here is how to train a style on your own art without renting a farm.

AP Biology: Using AI to Survive the Vocab Tsunami

AP Bio has roughly a thousand terms and four big concepts. NotebookLM and Claude Projects can turn your textbook into a custom tutor that actually knows what you are studying.

Customer Vs. User: They Are Not Always The Same Person

The person who uses your product and the person who pays for it are sometimes different humans. That one fact changes everything. Map your personas with AI Before you build, ask: 'who signs the check?' If you can name that specific human and how they'd justify the spend, you have a real business.

SEO In The AI Search Era

Google is no longer the only search. Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude are eating traffic. Here's how to be findable in 2026.